Sentences with phrase «occultation showed»
Not exact matches
That's when telescope observations of distant stars going behind Pluto (known as stellar occultations) showed that it had a methane atmosphere, probably rapidly evaporating to space.
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The two moons are shown to be strongly elongated, and composed of two lobes, as suggested by the recently observed occultation data by the moon Romulus.
The first, shows the difference between the actual length of day and 86,400 SI seconds (24 hours) over the past two and a half thousand years estimated from records of various astronomical events (eclipses, planetary transits, occultations etc).
The observations taken during the occultation also gave more accurate details of the dwarf planet's size, showing it to be an oblate spheroid measuring 1,430 km by 1,500 km, making it about two - thirds the size of Pluto.
«The occultation light curve shows a structured decline in intensity rather than a precipitous decline indicative of an atmosphere surrounding Pluto,» said Paul Delaney, a senior lecturer of physics and astronomy at York University in Toronto.
Continued observations of stellar occultations of Pluto will show us whether its atmosphere freezes out.
When astronomers graph the light data, a careful look at the gradual dimming of starlight shown in the occultation light curve reveals a «slight bend,» or «kink.»